What is the role of sociological theory in the information age? What kinds of theories are best suited to analyzing the social uses of digital technologies, and for using digital technologies in new ways to study the social? This book contributes to several ongoing conversations on how the social sciences can best adapt to contemporary information technologies and information societies. Focusing on practical or 'usable theory,' it surveys the challenges and opportunities of conducting social science in the information age, as well as the theoretical solutions that sociologists have developed and applied over the last two decades. With specific attention to three theoretical approaches in digital social research-critical theory, forensic theory and Bourdieusian theory-the author provides an overview of the history and main tenets of each, surveys its use in sociological research, and evaluates its successes and limitations. Taking a long-term view of theoretical development in evaluating schools of thought and considering their productivity in analyzing and using contemporary digital communication technologies, this book thus treats theory as a tool for empirical research and the development of theory as inseparable from research practice. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in research methods, the development of theory and digital technologies.

What is the role of sociological theory in the information age? What kinds of theories are best suited to analyzing the social uses of digital technologies, and for using digital technologies in new ways to study the social? This book contributes to several ongoing conversations on how the social sciences can best adapt to contemporary information technologies and information societies. Focusing on practical or 'usable theory,' it surveys the challenges and opportunities of conducting social science in the information age, as well as the theoretical solutions that sociologists have developed and applied over the last two decades. With specific attention to three theoretical approaches in digital social research-critical theory, forensic theory and Bourdieusian theory-the author provides an overview of the history and main tenets of each, surveys its use in sociological research, and evaluates its successes and limitations. Taking a long-term view of theoretical development in evaluating schools of thought and considering their productivity in analyzing and using contemporary digital communication technologies, this book thus treats theory as a tool for empirical research and the development of theory as inseparable from research practice. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in research methods, the development of theory and digital technologies.

Online communities generate massive volumes of natural language data and the social sciences continue to learn how to best make use of this new information and the technology available for analyzing it. Text Mining brings together a broad range of contemporary qualitative and quantitative methods to provide strategic and practical guidance on analyzing large text collections. This accessible book, written by a sociologist and a computer scientist, surveys the fast-changing landscape of data sources, programming languages, software packages, and methods of analysis available today. Suitable for novice and experienced researchers alike, the book will help readers use text mining techniques more efficiently and productively.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), Volume 19 of Emerald Studies in Media and Communications draws on global case studies that examine media use by millennials. By bringing together contributors and case studies from four continents to examine millennial digital media practices, the volume charts out multiple dimensions of Gen Y's digital media engagements: smartphone use among Israelis, the activities of Brazilian youths in LAN houses, selfies in the New Zealand context, and American millennials engaged in a variety of digital pursuits ranging from seeking employment, to content creation, to gaming, to consuming news and political content. Through these case studies we see parallels in the mediated millennial experience across key digital venues including Twitter and YouTube, and MMOs. None-the-less, contributors also prompt us to keep in mind the importance of those millennials without equal access to resources who must rely on public venues such as libraries and LAN Houses. Across these venues and arenas of practice, the research provides an important collection of research shedding important light on the first generation growing up with the normative expectation to perform digital identity work, create visual culture, and engage in the digital public sphere.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in cognition within sociology and other social sciences. Within sociology this interest cuts across various topical subfields, including culture, social psychology, religion, race, and identity. Scholars within the new subfield of cognitive sociology, also referred to as the sociology of culture and cognition, are contributing to a rapidly developing body of work on how mental and social phenomena are interrelated and often interdependent. In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Sociology, Wayne H. Brekhus and Gabe Igantow have gathered some of the most influential scholars working in cognitive sociology to present an accessible introduction to key research areas in a diverse field. While classical sociological and newer interdisciplinary approaches have been covered separately by scholars in the past, this volume alternatively presents a broad range of cognitive sociological perspectives. The contributors discuss a range of approaches for theorizing and analyzing the "social mind," including macro-cultural approaches, interactionist approaches, and research that draws on Pierre Bourdieu's major concepts. Each chapter further investigates a variety of cognitive processes within these three approaches, such as attention and inattention, perception, automatic and deliberate cognition, cognition and social action, stereotypes, categorization, classification, judgment, symbolic boundaries, meaning-making, metaphor, embodied cognition, morality and religion, identity construction, time sequencing, and memory. A comprehensive look at cognitive sociology's main contributions and the central debates within the field, the Handbook will serve as a primary resource for social researchers, faculty, and students interested in how cognitive sociology can contribute to research within their substantive areas of focus.

This is the ideal introduction for students seeking to collect and analyze textual data from online sources. It covers the most critical issues that they must take into consideration at all stages of their research projects.